


Second Childhood

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Canon Compliant, Childhood Sweethearts, De-Aged Steve Rogers, De-Aged Tony Stark, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up Together, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, POV Female Character, POV Outsider, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 13:31:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11921925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Steve and Tony get de-aged and it brings some problems, but maybe it gives them to chance to start over.





	Second Childhood

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cap IM Tiny RB Round 8: Prime](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11847531) by [DragonK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonK/pseuds/DragonK). 



> [Written for TRB art prompt PRIME](http://cap-ironman.tumblr.com/post/164369544221/cap-im-tiny-rb-round-8-prime)

Pepper's eyes were wet and she tried to brush the tears away without Natasha and Rhodey noticing. "So there is no way to undo his?"

Despite her best attempts she knew she wasn't fooling either of them. He best corporate smile worked like a impenetrable poker face in a business setting. But what were you to do when you were trying to look strong beside two Avengers? She knew James Rhodes knew her too well and Natasha was too good at masks to be fooled.

She wasn't trying for them though.

Rhodey, standing firmly thanks to the exoskeleton prosthetics Tony had developed for him, put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her a little closer, giving his support.

"I'm sorry," Natasha said, but only spared her a glance, before looking back to the two boys who were sitting on the floor together pushing a toy car around. "I know the wedding invitations were already sent out... But Wanda and Strange tried everything. We can't reverse it. Thor says Asgardian science or magic or whatever can't do anything either. We don't know what to do. It's like the Infinity Gems locked it in and now it's fact."

She would have to cancel the wedding. Even the thought of it was like an icy dagger pushed right into her already bleeding heart. They'd been happy. For the last few months, she and Tony had worked it out and been actually happy.

He'd had his issues, and she knew that his eyes darkened to that special shade of hurt black every time the name Steve Rogers was mentioned. It had been no secret to her how much admiration Tony felt for Captain America and how many insecurities it had brought up to meet the living legend. The fight, the betrayal Tony had felt after the Avengers had broken apart had sat deep.

But he had moved on. He'd tried his best to get himself together, get the remaining Avengers up and running under the accords. Most of all he'd allowed himself to seek happiness.

And now she found herself alone with the plans for the future they'd made.

Needing something to ground her, needing something to focus on, she leaned against Rhodey, but watched the kids. "I always knew that it was a possibility that one day Iron Man would go out to do his avenging and not come back. I did not expect it to be this way."

Across the room, the scrawny, little blond boy - _Steve_ \- laughed and... Tony - small and quiet and much more careful with his toys than she would have expected - smiled at him tentatively. It was all so wrong, but so sweet.

Here were two children, who had nobody in the world to take care of them but the adults standing together here. Tony was gone, but he was still here.

And he was _playing_ with Steve Rogers.

_Playing happily._

Little Tony laughed, high-pitched and excited when Steve whispered something to him and suddenly they jumped up as one and ran across the room towards them. "Rhodey, Rhodey," Tony said in his sweet child voice. "Can we have Pizza for dinner? Can we?"

Steve stood back a bit watching Tony and trying to discern the reaction of the group of adults. They were still in the process of figuring out how much of their previously adult lives both children remembered. From what Sam and Natasha had found out during some playful interrogation this morning, they were both aware of major events in their lives, recognized people and faces, but only grasped the situation and their past in the terms of 5-year-olds.

It was astonishing and sad and scary to think what that meant. 

Tony's frail chest was still marred by the same scar that was the last reminder of the arc reactor. And the super soldier serums still coursed through Steve's small body - with all the benefits it afforded him.

Some of their childhood characteristics were overlapping their memories though and even took precedence. Tony was an unexpectedly quiet child and worried to get in the way and fretted easily. Right now the little super soldier looked like a lost child who wasn't sure he could trust these strange adults. He was watching Tony, like he needed to pull him out if things got dangerous.

This must all be very confusing to little Steve. Wanting to make him feel better, Pepper tried to smile encouragingly. The boys weren't any more to blame for this complicated situation than the men this had happened to.

Steve perked up a little at her smile, but did not come closer. It wasn't surprising. She and Captain America hadn't met more than a handful of times. To the man she must have been his team mates "girlfriend", to the boy she must be a complete stranger.

Seeing the predicament, Natasha slowly held up her arm like an invitation to Steve. Pepper's breath caught up in her throat when Steve's little face brightened and he practically threw himself at Natasha, who wrapped him in a one armed embrace and ruffled his hair.

All the while Tony jumped up and down, nagging Rhodey for food.

God, they really were Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. But little kids. Little kids who had to grow up all over again.

"Can we? Have pizza?" Tony asked again.

"Know what, Tones?" Rhodey said and ruffled Tony's hair. "Why don't we take the orange car you like so much and go to town to get you boys your pizza?"

"Yes!" Tony cheered. His little hand grabbed Pepper's skirt and he grinned up at her, trusting and unaware of any of the complicated emotions she was battling with.

Her heart heavy, but touched by his trust, she tried to grin like she would at another child. "We can get a big pizza," she promised, "and share it."

"With Steve?"

Natasha's eyes met hers. Before the last battle Steve and Tony had barely been on speaking terms. Now it seemed they'd become playmates and best friends in the course of three days, stuck as the only kids on the Avengers compound. Even more than that! It seemed they _remembered_ each other, but none of their fights mattered. Like little children who argued and made up again, it seemed that for child Tony and child Steve their mutual admiration and interest in each other had pushed back all lingering memories of disagreements. 

The cosmic joke was on all of them it seemed.

They didn't wait, told Sam where to meet them in the city and listened to the boys chatter excitedly as they drove.

Sam arrived and four adults ended up sitting by two hungry children, like they were really their parents. Calmly, watching Steve and Tony munch their pizza at a small diner in Brooklyn, they started to talk about the future.

"Maybe it's for the best?" Natasha suggested, her face unreadable. "They didn't exactly have the best childhoods." Pepper wondered at the hint of longing in her voice. Perhaps Natasha would have gladly taken a second chance like that.

"And they both weren't the well adjusted adults they could have been?" Pepper asked back. She was trying to get used to the thought of Tony Stark, growing up again under her care.

It was probably a bad idea.

Steve asked with a frown: "What's well adjusted?"

Tony shrugged, his mouth stuffed with pizza and tomato sauce smeared all over his cheek. She reached for a napkin to clean it up without thinking.

"Sam will take Steve, won't you?" Natasha said more than asked, while Sam nodded readily, and it sounded final, but she watched Tony with a worried frown. Apparently Natasha knew how hard this was for Pepper.

Rhodey squeezed Pepper's hand. "We'll take Tony," he said. "Or I will."

"We will," she agreed. This was the least she could do. It was not the happiness she had wanted to share with him, but if they could be family, she could work it out.

"Can't we all live together?" Steve asked, much more talkative now that he was losing his shyness around Pepper.

"Nah," Rhodey said. "We did that and it didn't work out. But you'll see each other."

"Everyday?" Tony looked at Rhodey with wide eyes.

"Well," Rhodey said and ruffled his hair. "We'll work that out."

* * *

They went to school together until it became apparent that Tony was - again - rushing through education. He was bored at school even worse than the first time, because he had half of the knowledge of the adult Tony Stark stuck in his head now.

There was nothing to be done about it. He needed real work to keep him busy.

"So what?" Sam asked Rhodey. "He goes to college at seven this time?"

Pepper watched the boys standing close to each other on the lawn and whispering, the soccer ball lying at their feet forgotten. They were planning something. They always were. And Tony looked up at Steve with all the adoration of an infatuated little boy who'd follow his friend to the end of the earth. And Steve was smiling back so sweetly it was hard to imagine that he had ever look at Tony with cautious distrust. 

Perhaps that feeling she'd had that there was something more going on between Iron Man and Captain America - something unspoken and maybe never realized - had not been wrong. Would things have been different if they'd known each other better the first time around?

Would Tony _ever_ have come back for Pepper if he and Steve could have worked it out?

It was a stupid thought and it hurt.

Sam snapped a picture of the boys with his cell phone. "In case this turns out to be reversible after all. I want to laugh at them for being childhood sweethearts after all they put us through."

She laughed and was surprised that it was heartfelt.

* * *

At 18 she watched Tony get ready for an outing with Steve. They hadn't seen each other in a long time, despite everyone's best efforts to make them spend time together when possible.

But Tony was still Tony Stark and had grown up the "heir" to a company that still bore his name and that he still legally owned. Pepper was running Stark Industries for him, but Tony had taken much more of an interest in the running of his business than he had before. He was learning. He was changing. And yet with every day he became a little more like the Tony she'd known years ago

Life had changed a lot.

Now, remembering, reinventing himself and training with Avengers old and new, he was on his way to be Iron Man again. Steve had already gone out with the Avengers like he hadn't done anything else in the last 10 years. Captain America was back yet again and the world needed him more than ever.

Pepper had not missed the longing looks with which her teenaged charge watched every minute of new footage about Captain America and his heroics. Admiration, hero worship - longing. She could read it clear as day.

These days it did not bring up a pang of regret.

She and Rhodey had brought up the smart devil this time and sometimes it was hard to look at his youthful face and remember feeling anything but protective. Had that other life ever really happened?

Rhodey opened the door for Steve and raised an eyebrow at Pepper. Steve looked like he was dressed for a date. Tony met them in corridor, fidgeting a little. "Long time no see," he said and both "boys" stared at each other as they stood there, the rest of the world forgotten.

"Gazing in each other's eyes again," Natasha supplied from the door. She was here to meet Rhodey and talk Avengers business. "We're finally back where we started, boys. I'm so proud."

Steve and Tony blushed.

Pepper laughed and then shared a smile with Natasha. Some things may have turned out for the better.


End file.
